Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared in a video message Tuesday at the 80th Golden Globes award ceremony and vowed that Ukraine will not only win the war against Russia but will prevent a third World War from happening.
Zelenskyy began his remarks by looking back at the first Golden Globes ceremony in 1944, which honored the best Hollywood had to offer during 1943, and said, “The Second World War wasn’t over yet but the tide was turned – all knew who would win.”
“There were still battles and tears ahead,” he continued. “It is now 2023, the war in Ukraine is not over yet. But the tide is turning.”
Ukrainian soldiers in a trench on the Vuhledar frontline in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, Jan. 5, 2023.
(Photo by Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s success has been made possible with the support of Western allies and the united fight for democracy, independence and “for the right to live, to love.”
“The First World War claimed millions of lives. The Second World War claimed tens of millions of them,” he continued in his recorded address. “There will be no Third World War. It is not a trilogy.
“Ukraine will stop the Russian aggression on our land,” he concluded.
Zelenskyy was introduced to Hollywood’s best by actor-director Sean Penn, who has traveled to Ukraine and personally met with Zelenskyy several times since the war began nearly 11 months ago.
“From the other-worldly courage of young Iranians rising up,” Penn said to applause. “To the ever-persevering women’s movement of Afghanistan. We are reminded, in no uncertain terms, that the freedom to dream is not simply a human luxury but rather a human need that must be fought and sacrificed for.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 21, 2022.
(AP/Carolyn Kaster)
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“If the freedom to dream were a spear, I proudly present a human being who tonight represents that spear’s most honed tip,” Penn said before introducing Zelenskyy.
Penn made headlines in November after he gifted Zelenskyy one of his Oscar awards and told the Ukrainian president, “When you win, bring it back to Malibu.”
Roughly one month into the war, Penn had threatened to smelt one of his Oscars if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did not grant Zelenskyy airtime.
Hollywood actor and film director Sean Penn meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before he hands over his own Oscar statue to the Ukrainian president in Kyiv, Ukraine on Nov. 8, 2022.
(Photo by Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
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Zelenskyy never did appear at the Academy Awards and instead a moment of silence was held in honor of Ukraine.
In an interview with CNN, Penn called the decision not to have the Ukrainian president appear “the most obscene moment in all of Hollywood history.”
